I think I got my come-uppance the other day when a young man said, "You are OLD!" I have been thinking about age and old ever since. When you are very young, even into elementary school, students in high school or young adults seem old, and certainly your parents are OLD. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents, for sure they are OLD. As you get older, this whole thing seems to shift as you age. When you become a young adult or a parent, then the older generation still seems old but maybe not as starkly as before.
I knew that my dad was old when he died at age 70. Now that I am 69, I am not quite so sure of that statement ,and he seems young to have died at that age. My mom who is 95 knows what old is and says what do you think it feels like to have kids in their 70's or almost there.
The whole thing of age and old is a relative concept and always will be that way. One of my aunts taught school well into her 60's or 70's and said that teaching youngsters made her not feel so old. I do know that the age you have for yourself in your head usually does not match reality. Somehow I feel like a much younger person rather than what the calendar tells me.
As to my come-uppance, all I can say is that the young man will probably not remember his comment, but as he ages, is in for a surprise. I only hope someday that another young man does not announce to him, "You are OLD!"
3 comments:
Of course the comment was made after the "old" people told him, basically, that he didn't know what he was talking about and that they had been around three times longer than he had!!!
Who's the young bugger who called you old? I'll get him. Let me just get my walker, and I'll be on my way.
And to think we were just trying to be sociable with him, too, and talk about something HE wanted so maybe he would talk with us for a change. That "OLD" really hurt, period. No one above the age of six has ever been quite so bold as to say that to us before. It's perhaps a good thing I did NOT say some of things that immediately sprang to my mind! Oh, well... children will be children, and we just hope our OLD, but fulfilling lives will continue for just a bit longer! Thanks be to God! From HW2
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